


Squint your Eyes and Hope Real Hard

by yet_intrepid



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Disordered Eating, Gen, Stranded, Threat of Starvation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 06:54:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11099235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yet_intrepid/pseuds/yet_intrepid
Summary: Shiro’s kept them all to a slow pace, not wanting to waste too much energy, and he’s having them travel at night, too—the heat of afternoon on this desert planet has been sapping their strength. But even in the cool dusky breeze that blows around them now, Shiro can tell his team is tired.Because of course they are. They’re hungry.





	Squint your Eyes and Hope Real Hard

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from "Maybe Sprout Wings" by the Mountain Goats.

They’ve been walking for hours.

Shiro’s kept them all to a slow pace, not wanting to waste too much energy, and he’s having them travel at night, too—the heat of afternoon on this desert planet has been sapping their strength. But even in the cool dusky breeze that blows around them now, Shiro can tell his team is tired.

Because of course they are. They’re _hungry_.

Flat sand, punctuated by red rock, stretches out on all sides. In the moonlight, it looks almost like an ocean, and Shiro wishes to God it were. There’d be fish in an ocean. When Hunk and Pidge deemed their pod unfixable, Shiro picked to follow the one stream they found, hoping desperately that it would lead to civilization. So far, it hasn’t. Not in two whole nights of walking. And it doesn’t contain fish, either, that they’ve seen.

“Shiro?” It’s Lance, calling from up ahead. “Can we take a break, man?”

Shiro peers at the moon. He guesses they have another two or three hours to daybreak.

“Yeah,” he says. “Come on, team, let’s sit down a second.”

They settle on rocks by the stream, taking turns using the singular water filter that remains to purify and then guzzle water. Hunk strips off his boots to plunge his feet into the weak current.

“Shiro?” It’s Pidge, this time. Her voice is thin, maybe with impatience and maybe with exhaustion. “When can we eat again?”

Shiro bites his lip. “We’ve got to go another couple hours,” he tells her, doing his best to keep his own voice steady. “When we stop to sleep, we can have something. Okay?”

Pidge grimaces. “Fine,” she snaps, and Shiro feels a pang in his gut at having to tell her no on this.

Or maybe the pang is hunger.

Shiro gets up from the rock he’s sitting on, pacing out a little ways to stare out across the sand. There’s still no trace of anything like a village or city, no hint of salvation.

Just to check, he tunes into the comm channel for the castle. Static fuzzes through his helmet for several minutes until he finally gives up, taking off his helmet and settling back down in the dust a little ways out from the group.

At their current rate, they’ve got two days of ration bars left. If he cuts the amount again, Shiro’s not sure the rest of the paladins will be able to keep going long. Himself, he’s not so worried about—he’s done much harder things on much less. But watching his team suffer, having to withhold food from them so he can feed them later…it weighs on Shiro. Weighs as heavy, he thinks, as those days with Matt and Doc Holt trapped in a Galra cell, never knowing when they’d be fed again.

“Shiro?”

Shiro looks up. Keith is standing next to him, peering down.

“I saw you,” Keith goes on, accusingly, when Shiro doesn’t say anything.  

Shiro raises his eyebrows. “What did you see?” he asks.

“You didn’t eat before we started walking today.” Quiet anger leaks through Keith’s words. “I saw you. You split one ration bar in quarters. That didn’t leave any for you.”

“Keith,” Shiro says. “I’m fine, okay, I—”

“You aren’t being _fair_!” Keith interrupts. “What would you say if one of us started refusing our rations? Huh?”

“I would say,” Shiro says, carefully, “that a decision like that isn’t tactical for you. I know my limits, Keith. I know how much I can do and how much I need to do it.”

Keith peers at him, clearly doubting. “You’re going to eat tonight, though,” he says. “Right?”

“I’ll eat when I need to,” says Shiro. “Trust me, okay? I know I’m making the right call.”

Keith folds his arms, turning his back on Shiro to stare back at Hunk, Lance, and Pidge. Then: “I trust you,” he says.

“Good,” says Shiro. He stands up, trying not to wobble at the dizziness that overtakes him for a moment, and ruffles Keith’s hair. “Let’s get going, huh? Take advantage of these couple hours to find a shady spot to sleep.”

“Yeah,” says Keith, his tired face drawn tight. “Okay.”

But it’s not okay, Shiro thinks, as he squints out into the distance again. It won’t be okay until these kids forget what it’s like not to have enough to eat, until they’re safe and fed. And Shiro will do whatever it takes to get them there.


End file.
